Apply: Adopt A Free Textbook Grants

UTSA Libraries welcomes submissions for Adopt a Free Textbook grants.

These grants support the adoption and creation of free textbooks as the primary textbooks in a single course or in multiple sections of a course.

**3 applicants required for group grants; we encourage department-wide applications for higher impact.
Grant Outcome Student Cost Licensing Requirement Individual Award Range Group Award Range
No Cost Adoption of a library e-book or other no cost learning materials No cost Open licensing not required. $500 $1,000-2,000
OER Adoption of existing open educational resources Free Creative Commons $1,000 $1,500-3,000
Design Modification, remixing, or authoring of original OER Free Creative Commons $3,500-5,000 $5,000-$10,000

Use of Awards

Awards may be used to support professional development, to purchase materials/supplies that support teaching, or to fund student work on the proposed project. Awards may not be used as a salary supplement.

Eligibility

  • Open to all UTSA faculty.
  • Applicants must be the instructor of record for the course.

Selection

Applications are ranked and selected by: 

  1. Students impacted: course enrollment. 
  2. Total student savings.
  3. Course drop, fail, withdraw rate.

Deliverables

  • Collaborate with a librarian to find free textbooks
  • Replace the primary textbook(s) with free textbook(s)
  • For No Cost and Adoption: teach with the free textbooks 4 semesters
  • Design author commitment is 6-12 months; teaching commitment is 2 semesters
  • Marking course as Low Cost Textbook course in the Course Search
  • Complete an OER Certification Course (2 hours): No Cost & Adoption tiers
  • Serve as an OER advocate: share your experience with other faculty
  • Complete a final report that includes: 
    • Student evaluations of the textbook
    • Anonymized final grades, including drop, fail, and withdraw rates
    • Final syllabus and future plans
  • For Design Grants: 
    • Share OER in national and Texas repositories
    • Complete a Design Certification course (4 hours)

Support

All Grants

To support grants, the UTSA Libraries will provide textbook matches for adoption and adaptation. Librarians have expertise with Creative Commons licenses and copyright and fair use: foundational aspects of any OER project. The library works with Academic Innovation to integrate final projects into Blackboard, and can create Research Guides accessible outside the LMS. The library is an OpenStax Partner School and a member of both the Open Education Network and Texas Digital Library.

Design Grants

The UTSA Libraries team will support grant projects through all phases: from crafting a publication timeline to training on UTSA Pressbooks. Additional support includes accessibility guidance in UTSA Pressbooks, ISBN and DOI assignment, and sharing final OER for maximum reach and preservation.  Read more on OER Creation: Support for Faculty Authors.


Application Checklist

Course Information

  • • Syllabus
  • • Current textbooks, including price

Your Plan

  • • Proposed Textbooks
  • • Spending Plan

File Uploads

  • • Narrative
  • • Timeline
  • • Group and Design Grants:

Apply Now

Applications are due Monday, March 20, 2023.

Please submit a separate application for each course.

No Cost Textbook Adoption 

OER Textbook Adoption 

OER Textbook Design 

Looking for more grant opportunities? Check out the state funded OER grants.

FAQ

OER are “teaching, learning and research materials in any medium - digital or otherwise - that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.(UNESCO, 2022).

Questions?

Unsure which application is the best fit or have other questions? Email us at oer@utsa.edu.